Editorial: MDC scores big with psychiatric program that will be huge for our community

Midland Reporter-Telegram

Updated
11:29 am CDT, Thursday, May 31, 2018

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According to a contract received by the Reporter-Telegram, the MDC and TTUHSC are looking to create an outpatient child and adolescent psychiatric fellowship program to serve the mental health needs of children and families in West Texas and to train future psychiatrists in hopes that they settle in the region.

According to a contract received by the Reporter-Telegram, the MDC and TTUHSC are looking to create an outpatient child and adolescent psychiatric fellowship program to serve the mental health needs of children

Editorial: MDC scores big with psychiatric program that will be huge for our community

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Congratulations to the Midland Development Corp. and all those in the community who worked to create an outpatient child and adolescent psychiatric fellowship program.

In last Sunday’s Reporter-Telegram, Trevor Hawes brought our readers news that the MDC and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center is close to finalizing an agreement that will create the program to serve the mental health needs of children and families in West Texas and to train future psychiatrists in hopes that they settle in the region.

It will be the most significant deal the MDC has ever made. Here’s why.

Hawes reported TTUHSC expects to see a minimum of 9,720 patients each year of the deal. That’s right, nearly 10,000. Did anyone even think there was such a need? There is, and Midland will be the hub for an entire region.

We are proud the MDC saw such an under-the-radar issue and decided to be proactive with its funds. Proper care for mental health has been an issue in Midland for years. For children, mental health care is basically non-existent. It’s sad but true. Midland has failed for too long when it came to one of the more urgent needs any community faces. That, we expect, changes.

And the MDC’s commitment will benefit young families now and in the future.

“(The project) is a real plus for the Permian Basin and for Midland,” state Rep. Tom Craddick said. “We have psychiatric needs, and we don't have the people to care for those needs.”

The MDC will help fund the program with $8.4 million to be disbursed in $1 million installments each year, with an extra $400,000 in the first year to go toward renovating the program's home, 2301 W. Michigan Ave., adjacent to Midland Memorial Hospital. Hawes also reported TTUHSC will lease the facility from the hospital. The Scharbauer Foundation also will help underwrite renovation costs.

Thank you to Craddick and the Scharbauer Foundation for the big assists in making this deal possible.

We believe Midlanders should be excited about another connection with Texas Tech. Such programs only enhance the quality of life of people across the community.

We also are excited as the Midland Development struck another home run when it comes to helping this community deal with population growth. We remind the people in our community that it is the MDC that has donated millions to road projects, guaranteeing tens of millions of dollars more from the state.

The MDC is also putting its resources into education and health care. We keep hearing board members talk about the main priorities of “roads, education and health care.” It has become more than talk for the MDC board.

There will be some who continue to hold past failures over the current leadership at the MDC. That is life in economic development. It wasn’t even a decade ago that this newspaper called for the city to put the quarter-cent sales tax that funds the MDC back on the ballot. We wouldn’t make such a request today. Current leadership is giving Midlanders a reason to believe that the MDC is meeting the needs of a growing Midland better than just about any government entity. This board gets it.